Improvement in paddle-wheels



tnted time @anni 4diijiiue.

WILLIAM C. RICE, OF OQUAWKA, ILLINOIS.

Lette/rs Patent No. 90,465, dated May 25, 1869.

IIVIPROVEMENT IN PADDLE-WHEELS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

and exact description thereof, which will enable others` skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of my invention.

Figure 2 is a section of the same through the line Figure 3 is an end view of one of the tioats.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

The object of this invention is to provide a paddlewheel for propelling vessels, in which the doa-ts or buckets are feathered; that is to say, made to maintain a perpendicular position, with reference to the plane of the water, while entering and leaving the same, in a simple and effective manner.

The invention consists, in general terms, in the em ployment of pivoted oats or buckets, in combination with a fixed circular disk enclosing and eccentric with the shaft ofthe wheel, and an auxiliary wheel, having its hub-flange fitted to and working on the said disk, and its arms pivoted to short arms aiixed to the gudgeons or trunnions of the floats, so that the latter are made to Vmaintain the same relative position by the action of the auxiliary wheel working on the disk as the paddle-shaft revolves.

In the drawings- A is the paddle-shaft, and

B B B, 85o., are the fixed arms ofthe main wheel.

Theouter ends of these arms afford bearings for the trunnions of the vibrating floats C.

a, is a fixed disk or hoop of metal, which encircles the shaft, and is fixed eccentric with it in any suitable manner.

This hoop is held rigidly to some adjacent part of the frame-work of the vessel, and may be made to afford one of the bearings for the shaft A.

D are the arms of the auxiliary wheel, which radiate from the huh-fiange` b, which latter encircles and works freely on the hoop a.

rIhis ange is made with sockets to receive the ends of the arms I), as'shown.

The trunnions of one end of each ofthe floats pro.

ject through the arms B on the side next the vessel,

i and are provided with arms d, aiiixed rigidly on the said trunnions.

The other ends of these arms d are pivoted to the ends of the arms D of the auxiliary wheel.

E are the circles of the fixed arms, and G is the circle of the auxiliary wheel.

h 71 are the hub-Hanges, holding the ends of the f fixed arms B, in the usual manner.

The hoop a is arranged with its greatest eccentricity upward, so as, when the arms d are in line with the cross-section of the floats, to obtain the proper feathering-action of the said floats.

As the floats are carried around the axial centre of the shaft A, the auxiliary wheel b ^D D D, 86o., is also revolved, and its hub-flange b, in traversing in the eccentric hoop a, moves each arm D successively in an eccentric path around the shaft A, which operates to keep the floats perpendicular 'to the surface of the water, so that they will enter and leave it in this position, and thus avoid the Obliquity of action, by means of which much power is lost in uon-eatheriug wheels.

Having thus described my invention, v

I claimias new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent- 4 The ariangemeut of the eccentric hoop a, eccentric ring b, arms D, and cranks d, with the shaft A and wheel B C E, as herein described, for the purpose specified.

WM. C. RICE.

Witnesses:

JAMES SCOTT, HUGH L. THOMSON. 

